Charlottesville Rallygoers Sentenced To Prison For Their Roles In Violent Attacks

Three men have been sentenced to prison for violent behavior at the Charlottesville rally last year. All three of the men were convicted separately of participating in some of the most violent happenings at the August 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and sentenced to several years in prison.

Jacob Scott Goodwin and Alex Michael Ramos were sentenced Thursday, Aug. 23, to eight and six years in prison, respectively, for participating in a violent attack on a black counterprotester. Earlier this year, the two men had been found guilty of playing significant roles in the malicious wounding of DeAndre Harris, a man beaten with poles and sticks in a parking garage during last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Harris suffered a spinal injury, a head wound, and a broken wrist in the attack, The Washington Post reported

According to The New York Times, Goodwin was given a 10-year prison sentence Thursday with a judge suspending two of those years while Ramos received a six-year sentence with an additional three-year term suspended should he complete three years probation. Harris, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery against a Unite the Right rallygoer, was acquitted in March after a judge ruled he had not intended to hit the rallygoer while defending himself and his friend.

But Goodwin and Ramos aren't the only men to have received prison sentences for committing acts of violence at the deadly Charlottesville rally. Earlier in the week, Richard W. Preston, a man described as being a Ku Klux Klan leader, received four years in prison for firing a gun while at the rally.

Video released after the rally by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia showed Preston firing a handgun at the ground while turned toward a black counterprotester who was wielding a homemade flame thrower at the time. According to The New York Times, Preston was arrested last year and charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school after the ACLU submitted their video to FBI and local law enforcement in Charlottesville.

But Corey Long, the counterprotester Preston fired toward, was also sentenced to prison on charges of disorderly conduct, according to Newsweek. Long had previously told The Root he'd ignited a can of spray paint that had been thrown at him by Unite the Right rallygoers with a lighter in an attempt to protect and defend an elderly counterprotester. In June, he received a nearly one-year jail sentence with all but 20 days of the sentence suspended.

More prison sentences could soon follow, as two additional men await either sentencing or trial for their roles in the violent attack on Harris, according to The New York Times. Daniel P. Borden pleaded guilty to participating in the violent attack and was subsequently convicted of malicious wounding in May. He is expected to be sentenced in October. The second man, Tyler Watkins Davis, is expected to go to trial in mid-September, according to NBC29.